70 years ago, on 7 June 1944, the British 7th Armored Division landed in Normandy, halfway through a wartime journey that had started in north Africa. Formed on 16 February 1940, it adopted the Jerboa as its divisional sign—and while many units that fought in the desert call themselves by the name, 7th Armoured Division are the original ‘Desert Rats’. The division helped destroy the Italian Tenth Army at Beda Fomm on 7 February 1941, defeat the Desert Fox—Rommel—at El Alamein in October 1942, and drive Axis forces out of North Africa. After the desert, 7th Armored Division landed at Salerno on 15 September 1943, in time to help repulse concerted German counterattacks, before—as part of U.S. Fifth Army’s British X Corps—it took Naples and crossed the Volturno.
Pulled out of Italy, it reached England in January 1944 where it prepared to enter the Northwestern European theater at Gold Beach from 7 June, equipped...